Madison seals spot in final

RICHMOND — This time of year, the philosophy is to survive and advance.

Undefeated Madison County had to concentrate more on the survival part before it could worry about the latter in its Group A, Division 1 semifinal against Region D champion Castlewood on Thursday at the Siegel Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. Madison shot just 40 percent for the game, but put together a strong second half — led by its core group of seniors — to pull away 51-38 and move on to today’s state championship game against Altavista.

“I’ve been here as a player in 1996 in the championship game when we lost, and I know what that feels like,” said Madison coach Ben Breeden. “And then after last year, I know these guys know what it feels like, and I do whatever I can to get everybody fired up and motivated, thinking positive so we can go out there and make some plays on the offensive and defensive side.”

Breeden is in his first year as coach after serving as top assistant under Tim Taylor, now on Debbie Ryan’s women’s hoops staff at Virginia. Taylor led Madison to an undefeated regular season and state semifinal appearance a year ago in his final season at the helm, but the Mountaineers were upended by Dan River in the semifinals.

On Thursday, with most of last year’s team back for retribution as seniors, Madison refused to share a similar outcome in their last go-round. Seniors Jerel Carter, David Falk and Logan Terrell led a triumphant second-half effort that began on a game-changing play early in the third quarter.

After an 11-2 first quarter start, Madison looked like it would roll to a victory, but the Blue Devils (23-5) closed the gap to 18-11 by the end of the period. The second stanza proved to be troublesome for Madison. The Mountaineers (25-0) committed several careless turnovers and scored just three points, shooting just 1 for 7 from the field and 1 for 6 from the free-throw line.

“That second quarter, we couldn’t make anything,” said Breeden. “We had good matchups inside but we just didn’t get them the ball. So, we weren’t on the same page offensively, and I think we corrected that in the second half. [We] did a good job of getting the ball into Logan and isolating Jerel a little bit on the wing, and just letting them make plays.”

Blue Devils head coach Wayne Rasnick admitted that his troops didn’t fully take advantage, shooting just 2 for 9 in the period themselves, but Castlewood was right back in it, down by just two at the break.

“That’s a pretty good position to be in, and we felt good about it, of course we warned the kids in the third quarter that [Madison is] a third-quarter team, they like to come out and put it away in the third, and they did again,” he said.

After the coach’s son, senior guard Ruben Rasnick, scored two of his team-high 11 points to start the second half, the game was knotted at 21 all, and the hundreds of Madison fans in attendance were likely thinking, “not again.”

To their delight, Falk responded with a bucket on the other end — Madison’s first field goal in nearly ten minutes — which set up the game’s biggest play. On the ensuing Castlewood possession, Carter forced one of his game-high five steals and headed toward the hoop. Falk was the trailer on the break, and Carter lobbed the ball off the glass and hit him in perfect stride as he jammed it through. It was the second time on the day that the pair connected on an alley-oop, bringing the crowd to life and setting the stage for 11 unanswered points which put some much-needed distance between the two squads.

“We just tried to get the crowd into it and just start to get the momentum swinging our way,” Carter said of the play. “Coach told me that it was a dumb thing to do, but I think it was right at the moment.”

Falk added: “It feels awesome when you throw it down like that, but I’ve got to give credit to Jerel on both of those, I mean, he gave me perfect passes, I just put it down. It’s not all me.”

Down by 14, Castlewood made one last run, an 8-0 spurt that cut Madison’s lead to six with 2:34 to play. Madison’s Casey Campbell stepped to the line for a one-and-one on the next trip down, and the 5-foot-9 point guard hit the first, but misfired on the second. Terrell, who finished with six rebounds to go along with his game-high 14 points, came up with the offensive rebound and putback, and Madison was back up by nine.

“I had to step it up and make a big play,“ said Terrell, who said it was the effort on the other end of the floor that really made the difference. “I thought our defense was really the momentum-changer of the whole game. I thought we played good defense, good help defense, especially in the second half, and I think that put them away.”

Madison’s defense forced 17 Castlewood turnovers, including 11 steals, and won the rebounding battle, 35-32. Carter and Falk each finished with nine points, while Campbell added eight and five assists. Carter dished out a team-high six helpers and Falk hauled down a game-high 12 boards.

The nine Mountaineers seniors are well aware that today will be the last game in their career at Madison no matter what, and they are focused on the task at hand.

“Last year, like Coach said, we came up short, but this year, we’re back and we’re going to make the most of it,” Terrell said.

Falk agrees that this year’s team is hungry for another chance at bringing home the school’s second state title trophy.

“We just want to come out and play our game, and this is what we’ve dreamed of since we were kids, so if we play our game, then I think we can win it.”

Breeden knows that Taylor’s influence is still very apparent in his team — which has now won 54 of its last 55 contests over the past two seasons — and will be today when the ball is tipped at 3:45 p.m.

“I think we all feel his presence, he did a lot of the foundation and ground work that made these players what they are,” said Breeden. “It was tough in the beginning, but I think it’s paying off in the end, and it just goes to show that if you put in the time and the effort, and you care about each other the way that Tim does, and that these guys all care about each other, you can make some great things happen.”

The Mountaineers hope that the greatest thing of all will become a reality this afternoon in Richmond.